Chapter 3 - THE MONEY
I didn’t sleep.
At 2:13 a.m., Gwen finally passed out beside me.
Even asleep, she didn’t look peaceful.
Her hands stayed clenched near her chest.
I stared at the ceiling.
Four years.
Every month, I sent money into the account Gwen and I shared.
Sometimes five hundred.
Sometimes two thousand.
Hazard pay.
Bonuses.
Whatever I could spare.
The total was just under ninety-eight thousand dollars.
I had checked it twice.
But I had never checked the account itself.
I trusted my wife.
That was the point.
I slipped out of bed.
My laptop was still in my bag.
I opened it at the kitchen table and logged into our bank.
The password had changed.
That bothered me.
I tried the recovery process.
My phone number still worked.
A code came through.
I reset the password.
Then I saw the balance.
$1,846.22.
For a second, I thought I was looking at the wrong account.
I wasn’t.
I opened the transaction history.
Transfers.
Withdrawals.
Credit cards.
Luxury stores.
Restaurants.
Spa appointments.
Vehicle payments.
Then one transaction stopped me cold.
$38,500.
DEALER PURCHASE.
I looked through the kitchen window.
Paige’s new truck sat in my driveway.
Another transfer.
$12,000.
M. HARRIS PERSONAL.
Margaret.
My mother.
My fingers went numb.
Then I found something worse.
A home equity loan.
$64,000.
Against my house.
I stared at the screen.
I had never approved a loan.
I opened the documents.
There was my name.
DAVID MILLER.
There was my signature.
Except it wasn’t my signature.
Someone had forged it.
“Couldn’t sleep?”
I closed the laptop.
Paige stood at the edge of the kitchen.
Barefoot.
Arms crossed.
“What are you doing up?”
“Jet lag.”
She stared at the computer.
“Checking email?”
“Yeah.”
Her eyes stayed on me.
Then she smiled.
“You always were terrible at lying.”
I smiled back.
“Runs in the family.”
Her smile disappeared.
For the first time, I saw something different in my sister.
Not embarrassment.
Not guilt.
Calculation.
She walked closer.
“You should be careful digging around, David.”
I leaned back.
“Digging around what?”
“You’ve been gone four years. Things changed.”
“So I noticed.”
“You don’t know everything Gwen did.”
There it was.
The first attack.
“What did she do?”
Paige studied me.
Then she whispered,
“She stole from you.”
I almost laughed.
Instead I said, “How much?”
“All of it, basically.”
“And somehow you ended up with a new truck?”
Her face hardened.
“Gwen owed us.”
“For what?”
“You should ask her.”
She turned and walked away.
Before she reached the stairs, she stopped.
“Oh, and David?”
“Yeah?”
“If I were you, I wouldn’t trust whatever Gwen tells you.”
She looked over her shoulder.
“Especially about the baby.”
Then she went upstairs.
I sat frozen at the table.
Gwen and I didn’t have a baby.
We had never had a baby.
May you like
At least, that was what I thought.
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